Re: [PATCH net v4 0/2] stmmac crash/stall fixes when under memory pressure

Jakub Kicinski
2026-04-03T00:41:02Z

On Thu, 2 Apr 2026 09:53:43 -0700 Sam Edwards wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 2, 2026 at 8:05 AM Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org> wrote:
> > I meant we need both a threshold, and a delay :(
>
> Hi Jakub - got it: when the critical threshold is reached, allow the
> NAPI instance to sleep and start a timer instead.
>
> 1) We'd either have to leave interrupts masked or let them race
> against the timer. Either one is manageable, but I feel like those
> interactions carry *just* enough regression risk to bump that patch to
> -next.
>
> 2) Could you point out which NAPI driver best handles this situation?
> I'd like to replicate its approach.

Not sure, the last few NICs I worked on had the ability for SW
to trigger IRQs exactly because of the Rx buffer depletion issue.
fbnic_napi_depletion_check() for example.

But let's not overthink it.. say we arm a timer and let the IRQ
be unmasked. The timer just runs napi_schedule(). napi_schedule()
is thread-safe, if IRQ fires with the timer armed - no problem.